Excerpt from The Radical, Vol. 3: A Monthly Magazine, Devoted to Religion; September, 1867 June, 1868 T is a fine instance of the intimate nobility of John's character, of his pure disinterestedness, that he did not begin to do what the majority of preachers do: when a more attractive man than them selves, and a better preacher, begins somewhere near them and thins their congregation, try to underrate and cry him down. When his disciples come and say, Rabbi, he that was with thee beyond Jor don is baptizing, and all men come to him, he replied, Ye are; witnesses that I said, I am not the Christ. A man can have nothing but what is given him from heaven. I never had this gift of the Christhood this man has it he is therefore the Christ, just as much as the man who has the bride (in a true wedding) is a bridegroom. But as the friend of the bridegroom rejoices at the wedding, so I te joice that my friend and kinsman is the Messiah. So then. Be quiet; do not be annoyed, or jealous, or hypercritical. You cannot yet see, as I see, how much more this man must be than I ever can be. He must increase I must decrease. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.